Apple Must Keep Setting Standards or Lose Its Cool, Wozniak Says

Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak said, “Apple is really good at setting a standard with a new device. Apple still has its halo in that regard.” Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. has kept its power to
determine the course of consumer electronics even as it faces
tougher competition in mobile phones and tablets, said Steve
Wozniak, who co-founded the company with Steve Jobs in 1976.

Companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. “all
have great ideas, but sometimes you need a critical mass of
loyal users that will instantly buy and go this direction,”
Wozniak said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Berlin office this
week. “Apple is really good at setting a standard with a new
device. Apple still has its halo in that regard.”

Following Jobs’s death in 2011, Apple has delivered
upgrades and variations of devices including its iPad and
iPhone, while coming under increasing pressure from rivals
including Samsung Electronics Co. As shares have slumped 34
percent since a September peak, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook
faces calls for revolutionary new machines that will prop up
profitability.

Apple should consider opening up its ecosystem, for
instance by allowing buyers of mobile devices running Microsoft
Corp. or Google Android to use the iTunes media-management
software, Wozniak said. Without features to outclass competing
devices, Cupertino, California-based Apple is having to rely
more on its appeal as a premium brand, he said.

“We used to have these ads, I’m a Mac and I’m a PC, and
the Mac was always the cool guy,” he said. “And ouch, it’s
painful, because we kind of are losing that.”

Wrist Device

Wozniak, 62, designed the first Apple computers but left
the company in 1985, according to his website. Wozniak is
currently chief scientist at Fusion-io Inc., a maker of data-storage computers.

Apple has a team of about 100 product designers working on
a wristwatch-like device that may perform some of the tasks now
handled by the iPhone and iPad, people familiar with the plans
said last week.

Wozniak, who said he’s been wearing an iPod Nano player on
his wrist for the past few years, said he would welcome such an
innovation, especially if Apple improves the voice-recognition
function of its Siri software.

“Apple can keep engineers working so intently toward the
right product, you don’t have to rush something out ahead of
time,” he said.

Google has been working on eyeglass-embedded computers and
plans to introduce them in 2014.

Wozniak, who has a black and a white iPhone 5, using
Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., respectively, said he expects
Microsoft’s Windows Phone software to gain “enough critical
mass to keep going with their tablets and phones” as the
company is present in more markets than Apple.

BlackBerry will ultimately have to switch to the Android
operating system, he said, adding that the company’s “good
reputation as a hardware builder” and their brand should
provide enough differentiation for the company’s products.